Lowering Democratic Standards, Adaptive Changes and New Arrangements in the Face of Crises

Abstract

Crises can accelerate institutional adaptation while simultaneously lowering democratic standards. This panel examines how legislatures and constitutional actors recalibrate procedures, oversight, and legitimacy under pandemic disruption, security governance, emergency law-making, and a changing international order. One paper traces parliamentary digitalization across EU member states before, during, and after COVID-19, distinguishing temporary adjustment, incremental change, and lasting institutional transformation. A second contribution highlights constitutional adjudication as a driver of accountability by analyzing how Poland’s Constitutional Court has shaped the legal framework for intelligence oversight. A third paper links crisis governance to legislative backsliding by assessing whether emergency legislation coincides with declining regulatory-quality principles - transparency, stakeholder participation, and evidence-based decision-making - in Slovakia (2019–2025). Complementing these domestic and procedural perspectives, the final paper situates democratic backsliding within world politics, arguing that drift toward multipolarity expands political and economic lifelines and encourages strategic indifference or complicity, thereby reinforcing autocratic resilience. Together, the panel connects micro-level procedural change with macro-level opportunity structures, asking how rule-making under urgency reshapes scrutiny, accountability, and the perceived legitimacy of law-making. It highlights how crisis-driven reforms can persist, layer onto rules, or redistribute oversight authority. Methodologically, the papers combine comparative rule analysis, interviews, text-as-data and network approaches, process-focused indicators, and cross-case theorizing.

Title	Details
Digitalisation of National Parliaments After the Covid-19 Pandemic: Temporary Adjustment, Incremental Change or Lasting Institutional Transformation?	View Paper Details
Autocratic Resilience in the Multipolar Age	View Paper Details
Legislative Backsliding and the Decline of Regulatory Quality: Assessing Law-Making Legitimacy in Slovakia	View Paper Details
The Influence of the Constitutional Court on the Legal Framework for Intelligence Oversight in Poland	View Paper Details